Unwrapping
This is the second tutorial of my four part series dealing with character animation. These tutorials are targeted for beginners wanting to learn the basics of organic modeling, unwrapping, texturing, character rigging, and creating a cute 3d monster. In this second part we’re going to unwrap the character. You’ll learn about UVW texture coordinates and unwrapping. I’ll do my best to keep things as simple as possible. I’m using 3ds Max 2011.
Step 1 What is Unwrapping?
In 3d graphics, mapping coordinates ( ) define how the texture is wrapped around the model. Unwrapping means laying out the mapping coordinates so that texture painting can be done. While unwrapping a model one should pay attention to two things: stretching and seams. Naturally there must be seams when a 2d texture is wrapped around a 3d model. However, during the unwrapping process, one can define the amount and position of the seams. The goal is to have as few seams as possible and to hide them as well as possible (in the back of the model, under arms etc.).
The UVW mapping coordinates can ( and often do) make the texture stretch. During the unwrapping, the stretching should be minimized by moving the mapping coordinates. Often when there are lot of seams there aren’t that much stretching and vice versa. One must make a compromise between these two issues. In my opinion seams is the lesser evil and can be fixed easily with a 3d paint as you’ll see in my upcoming texture painting tutorial.
In the picture below you see the result of this tutorial. There are the unwrapped UVW coordinates on the left and the model with the UVWs and a checker texture on the right.
Step 2 Preparing the Model for Unwrapping
It’s always easier to unwrap a low poly model than a high poly model because there are just as many mapping coordinates as there are vertices. Therefore, it’s often a good idea to do the unwrapping before applying the Turbosmooth modifier. However, there is a one problem with our monster model. It changes pretty much when the first Iteration of the Turbosmooth modifier is applied. In fact, the arms change so much that there’d be some visible stretching in the final model if we unwrapped the low poly version. Fortunately there is an easy solution. We can set the Iterations value in the Turbosmooth modifier to 1. That’s a good compromise – polygon count isn’t yet high and the model is very close to it’s final form. Additionally, we want to do the unwrapping before applying the Symmetry modifier. The Symmetry modifier saves our time by mirror both the geometry and the mapping coordinates. Let’s prepare the model for the unwrapping:
- The starting point should be a 3ds Max file with just one object in it: Half of the monster with the Turbosmooth modifier applied.
- Set Iterations value to 1 in the Turbosmooth modifier.
- Add the Edit Poly modifier on top of the Turbosmooth modifier.
- Activate the polygon sub-object level in the Edit Poly modifier and delete the right half of the model in the front viewport ( ).
- To keep things simple, collapse your modifier stack ( right-click on the modifier stack and select collapse all from the menu ). If you want to keep your stack you can, but we’re going to add several new modifiers to it.
Step 3 Checker Texture
Usually a checkerboard texture is applied to the model before the unwrapping. The checker texture makes it really easy to notice stretching. Open Material Editor ( ) to create the checker texture for our model:
- Select your monster and assign a new material to it.
- Add Checker as a diffuse map ( ).
- Set U and V Tiling to about 20 ( ).
- Enable “Show Standard Map in Viewport” ( ).
- Self-Illumination: 25 ( ).
Now that the checker texture is applied, our goal is to organize the UVW coordinates so that all squares in the checker pattern are equal in size and are as square as possible.
Step 4 Unwrap UVW
The Unwrap UVW modifier is a powerful tool that let’s you apply many different mapping types to different face selections and you can even tweak individual mapping coordinates. In our workflow we make a face selection, apply the most appropriate mapping type to it, and tweak the mapping coordinates in the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog. Let’s make a selection to be unwrapped:
- Apply the UVW Unwrap modifier to the model ( ).
- Activate the face sub-object level in the Unwrap UVW modifier.
- Select everything except the arm ( ). Orbit around the model to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
Step 5 Pelt Mapping
In this tutorial we’re going to use Pelt mapping. Pelt mapping is a special mapping type that is well suited for organic models. Pelt mapping tools let us define the texture seams and stretch out the UVW coordinates into a flat, unified map:
- While the torso is still selected, click ‘Pelt’ ( ). In the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog you see the UVW coordinates in the middle and a circular stretcher around it. The points in the stretcher are connected to the UVW map seam. The job of the stretcher is to pull the UVW map flat. The stretcher can be manipulated but in this case there’s no need.
- Look at the checker pattern in your model. There is serious stretching at the top and at the bottom of the model.
- Click ‘Start Pelt’ , let the simulation run for a few seconds, and click ‘Stop Pelt’.
- Look at the checker pattern in your model. It looks better, but there is still stretching and and squares aren’t uniform in size.
- Click ‘Start Relax’ and let the simulation run some time but stop it before the UVW vertices in the corner of the mouth overlap too much ( ).
- Look at the checker pattern in your model. If it looks ok click ‘Commit’.
Step 6 Edit UVWs Dialog
The face selection in the Unwrap UVW has been translated to a UVW coordinate selection in the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog. Before manipulating the UVWs, let’s apply a few settings to make things a little simpler:
- Activate ‘Filter Selected Faces’ in the bottom of the dialog. ( ).
- Click ‘Options…’ in the bottom of the dialog to expand the options panel.
- Turn ‘Tile Bitmap’ off in ‘Bitmap Options’. ( ).
- Turn ‘Constant Update’ on in Viewport Options. ( ).
- Use the Move and Scale tools to fit the selected UVWs inside the texture boundaries. Also, rotate the UVW map so that the right side is as vertical as possible ( ).
Step 7 Dealing with Overlapping UVW Coordinates
The checker pattern should look really good, but unfortunately there might be some overlapping UVW coordinates or inverted faces. Let’s run two automatic error checking routines to find these problems:
- Select Inverted Faces ( ).I didn’t find any but if you do, fix it ( ).
- Select Overlapped Faces ( ).In my model there is one overlapped face in the corner of the mouth ( ). Let’s zoom to the problem area and fix it.
- Activate the vertex sub-object level in the Unwrap UVW modifier.
- Move the vertices so that the problematic UVW faces look more like rectangles ( ). Check your model to make sure the checker pattern didn’t get messed up. When you’re done just close the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog.
Step 8 Defining UV Seams for Pelt Mapping
Now the unwrapping of the body is complete and we go on with the arm. By default the only seam in the arm is at the edge of our selection. That isn’t enough. The stretcher wouldn’t be able pull the UWV map flat. Try to visualize it in your head: It’s like trying to turn a sock into a flat piece of fabric without any cutting. But with just one cut we could do it, right? So let’s define one seam:
- Activate the face sub-object level in the Unwrap UVW modifier and select the faces of the arm. Orbit around the model to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
- Activate ‘Point to point Seam’ ( ) and define the seam for pelt mapping. Just click on vertices and a seam is traced between them. Defined seams are shown in blue color ( ). There should be 10 edges in your seam. Make the seam under the arm, not on top of it. If you make a mistake you can activate ‘Edit Seams’ ( ) and remove unwanted seams by clicking on them while pressing Alt in keyboard.
Step 9 Unwrapping the Arm
From now on the pelt mapping process is exactly the same as with the torso except there probably won’t be any overlapped nor inverted faces.
- While the arm is still selected, click ‘Pelt’ ( ).
- Click ‘Start Pelt’, let the simulation run for a few seconds, and click ‘Stop Pelt’.
- Look at the checker pattern in your model. There is probably stretching and the squares aren’t uniform in size.
- Click ‘Start Relax’, let the simulation run for a few seconds, and click ‘Stop Relax. ( ).
- Look at the checker pattern in your model. If it looks ok click ‘Commit’.
- Move and scale your UVW selection so that it doesn’t overlap with the UVWs of the torso.
- Scale the UVWs of the arm until the size of the squares is the same as in the torso ( )
- Arrange to UWV coordinates for example like in image below ( ) and close the dialog.
Step 10 Mirroring the UV Coordinates and the Geometry
Now the unwrapping is done and we’re ready to apply the Symmetry modifier:
- Go to the front viewport and apply the Symmetry modifier ( ). If the model disappears, activate Flip ( ).
- Activate the mirror sub-object level in the Symmetry modifier and align the mirror plane to the right side of the model. The vertices in the middle are welded together. Deactivate mirror sub-object level.
Step 11 Tweaking the UVW Coordinates
Add another Unwrap UVW modifier on top of the Symmetry modifier ( ). Click ‘Edit…’ in the Unwrap UVW modifier to open the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog ( ). The UVW layout looks exactly the same as before the Symmetry modifier, but it’s not. The UVW coordinates of the both sides are exactly on top of each other and therefore use the same portion of the texture. This would be ok if we wanted the texturing to be perfectly symmetrical. Usually you want to separate the coordinates to avoid perfect symmetry:
- Activate ‘Select Element’ in the ‘Selection Modes’ at the bottom of the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog.
- Click on the UVW map of the arm and move it to the right. Now you have separated the UVW clusters of the arms. Click ‘Mirror Horizontal’ in the top of the dialog ( ). Move the UVW clusters of the arms as you see fit. Just make sure to keep them separated and inside the texture boundaries.
- Click on the UVW map of the torso and move it to the right.
- Click ‘Mirror Horizontal’ in the top of the dialog to mirror the selected UVWs horizontally.
- Move the UVW clusters of the torso close the each other so that the middle vertices overlap ( ). These UVW coordinate clusters have a common seam in the middle and therefore can be welded together.
- Deactivate ‘Select Element’ in the ‘Selection Modes’ at the bottom of the dialog and weld the vertices on the common seam together ( ): select two vertices at a time, double click on them, and select ‘Weld selected’ from the menu. If the weld doesn’t work, the vertices are too far apart and you must increase the ‘Weld Threshold’ in the ‘Unwrap Editor Options’ at the bottom of the dialog.
- If the welding caused stretching in the middle, go ahead and move UVW vertices to fix it.
- It’s possible that one or more UVW clusters are inverted which might cause problems with bump mapping. Activate the face sub-object level and click ‘Select Inverted Faces’ ( ). If any of the UVW clusters turns red, just mirror it horizontally and you’re done.
- Move and scale the UVW coordinate clusters so that they fill as much of the texture area as possible. There is a tool for that called ‘Pack UVs’ ( ) but let’s do it by hand. Move and scale the UVW clusters as you see fit but whenever you scale, scale everything to keep the coordinate resolution uniform.
Step 12 Good to Know
If you just want to finish this, skip to step 13, but if you’d like to learn about the other mapping types, read on. In this tutorial we used Pelt mapping. Pelt mapping works well but sometimes there is a need also for the traditional mapping types: planar, cylindrical, spherical, and box. The workflow with these mapping types is a little different:
- You make a face selection.
- You apply the appropriate mapping type ( ).
- You move, scale, and rotate the mapping gizmo to minimize stretching and to position seams ( ).
- You continue in the ‘Edit UVWs’ Dialog and move UVWs to minimize stretching and weld them to get rid of seams. Sometimes you must move UVW vertices one by one but often the Relax tool ( ) solves stretching automatically. The Relax tool works like the Relax in the Pelt mapping dialog. First you select UVWs in the problematic area ( ) and then you run the Relax to modify the spacing of the selected UVWs for the purpose of minimizing stretching. Trial and error method works well with the Relax tool. Just try different selections and different settings.
Step 13 Turbosmooth
Now the UVW Unwrapping is complete. Add the Turbosmooth modifier to the model and set the Iterations value to 1-2 depending on your needs.
Let’s continue in the comments and stay tuned for the texturing tutorial!
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93 Responses to “Unwrapping”
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Sweet, i cant wait to do this.
Thank you very much
Fantastic but bit basic….
As a multiple years experience graphist on softwares like Photoshop, Illustrator, Signlab and Flexi, I did not know anything about 3D modelling and I was searching for that kind of tuturials wich do not show me only to model a certain thing, it shows me what and how I can do things to come together. I did’nt even knew how to make a poligon before the modeling tutorial on this site. I can now do multiple things to implement my work and flow. I’m taking course in a couple months into this type of modeling and texturing but I want to have a base when I’ll be there and these tutorials made it!
So just to mention i find it lame to make that sort of comment. “Fantastic but bit basic….”. Tutorials are made to LEARN and believe me or not, 3D modeling and any other stuff that there are tutorials for are not known by ANY humans at birth. EVERYONE needs to learn and these tutorials are just AWESOME for beginers.
(Did’nt meant to offense anyone if it was done in this reply. I wanted to say this because i own by myself a turorial site (Photoshop) but my site is meant for beginners, not to make “THAT EFFECT” but to learn how the software does its own things and how to control it. Yes, making the background transparent is a hard task for some persons and I do think it’s better to help ‘em than ignore ‘em.)
i do fine until i get to the pelt stage of the arm…its almost like it’s ignoring the back side of the arm, and if i check for inverted faces, it shows some on the back side of the arm…to me they look fine tho?..stumped…
a reference picture:
http://i35.tinypic.com/2q0kflv.jpg
i did notice i was not keeping my torso UVW inside the texture boundaries doing this a second time, but still couldn’t solve my original “arm pelt” problem…
thanks for these tutorials again though! they are awesome and help so much!! my future portfolio thanks you too…3d is the one concept I am lacking great knowledge in to really make me the “total package” I am trying to be!
You’re welcome. Nice to hear they help!
I checked your image. I can see only half of the UVWs of the arm in the ‘Edit UVWs’ dialog ( I see 8 rows of vertices in your arm, but only 4 rows of UVW coordinates). Are you sure you selected the whole arm before clicking ‘Pelt’ ? It’s a good idea to orbit around the model to make sure. In the image in step 9 you see how the UVWs of the arm should look like.
Please read step 8 again. I updated the image and made some changes to the text to make the whole thing clearer. Make sure your seam is only under the arm. Don’t make the seam on top of the arm. There should be only 10 edges in your seam.
perfect!! thanks buddy!
Hi, thanks very much for the excellent tutorial…been waiting for part two. I have one question, on Step 9 when I select Relax the simulation just spins around and doesnt come to a halt. When I look in the viewport the checkerboard seems fine but on the back its very stretched. Did I model the arm incorrectly perhaps?
Thanks again,
Pauly-chops, Ireland
That’s just how it works. Click ‘Stop Relax’. I made a small change to the text in step 9 to make it clearer.
Just selected the faces on the back of the arm and followed the pelt steps again and worked this time. sorry, my bad
Figured out what was going wrong, I was making the seam run the whole lenght of the arm instead of what is shown in the screenshot. NOOB mistake!
Tried following this tutorial as best as I could but mine doesn’t look as seamless, lots of stretching has taken place on the arms and I can’t seem to fix it, might wait until next tutorial to find out if this will make a huge impact and if it does I will have to try again.
Thanks for the tutorial, really helps out beginners like me.
Just wanted to say that I really like your blog. Great tuts…just keep them coming. :] They’re much appreciated!
Anyway…here’s a little “twist” on our cute little monster.
http://i38.tinypic.com/no7pev.jpg
Yes ! I did it again !
It’s my first character in 3d
Thanks a lot
Nice tut! Got a little trouble with editing at the end, but managed to solve it.
To Sho : Nice pic
super!!!
Could you talk about animations using dynamics?! please
this is just what i needed to kickstart this school year. thanks for the kick in the butt that i needed
WOW, very cool, when we can see ather part of tutorial?
Glad you like it! The next one will be out in one week.
Hello, it’s great to modify a modeling project. I spent more time to fix and weld the checker textures but not perfect match at the seams especially the upper to the head. How to make it become better!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollui/4979437928/
and could you teach us to do the lighting and skin material as your tutorial picture blue or green one with the drool effect! THANK!
Your unwrapping looks really good. Nice work! The next tutorial will cover the creation of the texture (including the drool) and I will show the exact lighting and rendering settings in some tutorial as well.
You obscheali that the lesson will be within a week, we’re waiting)
Yes, sorry it’s taking so long. I’ll work hard to get it online soon.
dont worry. I write tutorials too I know how it hard)
i did the tutorial my final work looks very good but i couldnt do the first 2 in step 7??especially the first..i dont know how to fix it.,
Great Tutorial. One of the best and one of the few explaining every action you take! Keep the good work. I will be a permanent reader of your tutorials!
Good to hear!
Great tutorial, great planation! But I have a problem, I try do explain it, I’m french XD
When I do a rendering, i can see through the mouth… So, a picture is better than word :
http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/11691604012671_monsterprob01.png
Thanks!
Make your material two sided: Deactivate “Backface culling” in the material settings.
Thanks for sharing… this tutorial is great and has helped me alot!
my unwrapping looks totally crappy to be honest
after pelting and relaxing the polygons are not square-like at all.
did you move a lot of vertices to get your result?
regards
I moved the vertices only a little in steps 7 and 11. Does your model look the same as mine?
Hello,
thank you for your quick reply. This is how my model looks (should be almost exactly like yours)
http://img27.imageshack.us/i/monstertt.jpg/
My unwrap doesn’t look quiet convincing though:
http://img823.imageshack.us/i/pelted.jpg/
The squares are strechted (Screenshot is after pelting + relaxing)
Regards
I can see only your UVW coordinates. How does the checker texture look like? The goal is to make the squares in the checker to be as square-like as possible.
Anyway, it looks like you let the pelt or relax run longer than me. Try it again and stop it when the UVWs look like mine ( see the picture in step 5). And remember, when the checker looks good, the UVWs are good.
Hi there,
nice tutorials you got there. I’ve tried your ocean 3D modelling and created a simple camera revolving on them.
Although not as beautiful as yours but thanks for the tutorials
One questions though, how can I use my own custom mapping?
Very nice tutorial! I completed this tutorial as well. Now on to the texturing!
Nice to hear you completed it! Good luck with the next one!
this is an old thread and i dont you if you still check it, but this is the only way i can do to get talk to you, i got a problem when pelt the body ( step 6), when i select inverted face, there is a few “red problem” in the eyehole and the mouth, i check and recheck , orbit around and i’m sure that i have select all the body, but i still get the same little red. pls help me.
This is my problem, can anyone help ?
http://ca9.upanh.com/17.705.22094981.qhE0/stuck.jpg
See step 7. Some of the faces are overlapping. Just move the vertices one by one so that the faces look more rectangular. In the image in step 7 you see how I dealt with my inverted faces.
It’s worked perfectly, thank you a thousand times!
Great tutorial series! But I can also see through the eyes and the mouth when I render.I ‘ve read your reply to an another person who had the same problem that backface culling must be deactivated but I can’t find where backface culling is.Could you or anyone else tell me where exactly is it?
Sorry if my English is not so good.
Thank you.
It happened to me too.. It took me about one hour to find out that this “backface culling” thing was’nt the problem…
Anyway, just for you to know, to achieve the “backface culling” option you have to right-click your object, then go to “OBJECT PROPERTIES”…
BUT, the thing that made the problem with the mouth get resolved was going into “Material Editor” (press M on the keyboard) then check the “make 2 sided” box.
Good luck!
This tutorial is great, by the way.. Thank you mr. Polygonblog!
I love your tutorials,they have helped me tons. But I have ran into a problem when trying to put the checker on my model. When I apply the texture it only shows up as a white rectangle around his mouth. I’ve tried remakeing the model and that did not fix the problem.
Problem: For some reason when the Checker texture is applied it is only applies to a small area of the model. This problem also occurs to any map applied to the model.
http://s2.postimage.org/9raakb99g/image.png
Please help
Perfectly normal behaviour. You can’t see the map in certain polygons because there are no mapping coordinates. Just go on with the tutorial.
Ah, ofcourse, I only just noticed it happened in one of your screenshots; but thank you for such great support! Also, how do you go about creating reference images for modelling?
Hey! I can’t get my uv like yours. Heres what it looks like: http://img207.imageshack.us/i/pic412.jpg/ .
Hi,
first, thanks for your great tuts!
i have a problem with step8. can´t select the arm or deselect the body after step7
Thanks again man, your efforts making these tutorials are much appreciated, blessings!! =)
Fantastically done, and really informative. I adore these tutorials. I’m a teacher myself, and I stumbled upon this blog finding information on Mental Ray lighting setups. *Bookmarked*
I find it hard to fix the stretching and it always seems to come out worse than before. What do I do?
“thanks for sharing this UVW mapping tutorials…”
very informative article!
Thanks for the tutorial! I was really struggling with a current project and this helped me out a great deal. UVW mapping is so annoying but this has helped me!
thanks for this tutorial! keep going!
ty for this your one of the few that helpes explain it down to every last detail,exzactley what i was looking for.
i mod for dow2 could make my own models but the uvw stuff stumped me time and time agin so …your tut helps me understand thiis.
ill allso be looking for your next one great job man.and ty soooo much.
شكرا جدا بس محتاجه توضيح اكتر او مجهود اكتر شكرا
http://up.cgway.net/show.php/9973_UVW.jpg.html
I have a problem in this tutorial now
, at STEP 2 point 3. i have to move my edit poly on the top of the modifier or i have to create another poly edit modifier in the top?…beacuse if i move the edit poly i have on the top this is the result:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/847/catturawr.jpg/
Add new Edit Poly modifier.
Thanks again, at the end of step 3 my texture checker is this, it’s ok or there is a problem?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/8/abcwc.jpg/
i see it’s ok
thanks however!
Hi, i have a question. If you select any of the vertices of the mesh while the uvm mapping window is open, the same vertices get selected on the uvw as well and viceversa. Thats fine, now, the problem is that when i switch from editing UVWs to editing mesh or viceversa the selection is not preserved which is a problem because i need to use the uvw window to identify more easily a group of vertices and then move them all together in the mesh. How can i fix it so when i select vertices in one mode the selection is preserved for the other mode too?
Thanks